Crew Opens Preseason With 1-0 Win

Thursday

Feb 6, 2014 at 12:01 AMFeb 6, 2014 at 12:18 AM

The final results won't matter for more than another month, but the Gregg Berhalter era unofficially got underway today with a 1-0 exhibition win against Swedish side Malmo FF this afternoon in Bradenton, Fla.

"I thought it was good," coach and sporting director Gregg Berhalter said in a telephone interview. "I thought some of our movement was good. The effort was good. There were a lot of positives to take away from it."

The final results won’t matter for more than another month, but the Gregg Berhalter era unofficially got underway today with a 1-0 exhibition win against Swedish side Malmo FF this afternoon in Bradenton, Fla.

“I thought it was good,” coach and sporting director Gregg Berhalter said in a telephone interview. “I thought some of our movement was good. The effort was good. There were a lot of positives to take away from it.”

After playing one group of 11 players for the first 45 minutes, Berhalter fielded a completely different group in the second half as planned and was rewarded with the game’s lone goal. After midfielder Justin Meram’s corner kick was redirected by teammate Tyson Wahl and a Malmo defender from just inside the area, forward Jairo Arrieta cleaned up the loose ball and sent it into the back of the net.

Berhalter said the hope is that the goal is a sign of good things to come from Arrieta, who initially had his 2014 option declined and re-signed with the club at a discounted rate after a disappointing 2013 season.

“Maybe he can build a little momentum and he needs that. He’s a guy that it’s good to have him open his account.

The Crew used an entirely different lineup in each half, with likely regular-season starters scattered throughout the rosters. Daniel Paladini and Waylon Francis, two of the team’s offseason additions, were held out with knee and big toe joint inflammation, respectively.

The Crew will conclude the Bradenton portion of its preseason slate Friday and return to Columbus to resume practice Monday.

And as for whether his first game in charge of a Crew side meant anything extra to him, Berhalter said, “Not really. I think it was good. It was a good effort and I’m pleased with that. I think guys got into positions where they’re uncomfortable mentally in this game and they battled through it, which was important. I think that was a good sign.”

The Crew will have a light day Thursday and a hard one Friday before returning to Columbus, where the team will resume training Monday before departing for Orlando on the 16th.

Here was the first-half lineup:

Ryan Finley

Bernardo Anor Federico Higuain Hector Jimenez

Fifi Baiden Wil Trapp

Ben Sweat Patrick Slogic Michael Parkhurst Chad Barson

Matt Lampson

And in the second half:

Jairo Arrieta

Justin Meram Ben Speas Dominic Oduro

Agustin Viana Kevan George

Tyson Wahl Josh Williams Eric Gehrig Ross Friedman

Steve Clark

Higuain was the first-half captain and Oduro took the armband in the second half.

Unsigned draft pick Adam Bedell and trialist Konrad Warzycha also did not see action.

“It’s unfortunate not everyone can get to play,” Berhalter said. “We’re here, we’re a group and we’d like to get everyone in the games but we can’t accomplish that. It’s just about mixing up the lineup, getting certain guys playing together and making sure the teams were pretty balanced. Overall we’re pretty happy with it.”

Did anyone catch Berhalter’s eye?

“Collectively it was a good effort,” he said. “At this stage in the game I don’t want to single guys out. I would say that collectively they did well.”

Defense and offense Before the game, Berhalter said the Crew has mostly focused its efforts on the offensive side of the field and will begin installing its defense in the coming weeks. I asked him how he thought the team performed in both avenues after scoring one goal and allowing none.

Offense: “It’s getting there. Those guys are good. They stay compact and they’re difficult to break down. We had some decent movement. The final pass wasn’t there all the time but there were some good combinations. We’re getting there. We had some good movements.”

Defense: “It was pretty good. It was OK. I think we have some work to do with our positioning and our communication and movement. I think that exercise was a mental exercise of hanging in there. They didn’t have our routine of our system defensively to fall back on. They did well. They grinded it out, but we certainly can improve.”